ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 1, 1996 TAG: 9607010140
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Dominique Dawes soared so high, it's going to take her awhile to come back to earth.
A high-flying routine on the uneven bars gave Dawes the lead in the Olympic gymnastics trials Sunday night, and she held onto first place despite a few mistakes in her next routine.
By winning the trials with 78.157 points, the 19-year-old made her second Olympic squad. Kerri Strug, another 1992 veteran, finished second with 78.108.
``It's a dream come true to make two Olympic teams,'' Dawes said. ``I'm a little in shock now, but I'm very excited even if I'm not showing it.''
Jaycie Phelps, Amy Chow and Amanda Borden, who just missed the 1992 squad, also made the team that will compete in Atlanta. Shannon Miller and Dominique Moceanu, who were injured and couldn't compete, also made the team.
Miller and Moceanu's scores from the nationals were counted, and it was mathematically impossible for them not to finish in the top seven after Friday's low compulsory scores. Both scored higher than any of Sunday's competitors. Compulsories count for 60 percent of the score, and optionals are worth 40 percent.
Dawes earned a 9.95 for an uneven bars routine that had her soaring high above the top bar. The score tied Strug's effort on the vault for high mark of the night. Dawes was grinning as soon as her feet hit the mat, then she turned and waved to the roaring crowd that was behind her all night.
But Dawes put a little too much enthusiasm into her floor routine, stepping out of bounds on two tumbling passes, an automatic .20 deduction. Her mark of 9.612 was enough to keep a slim lead over Strug going into the final event.
``I was really nervous before my floor and I was worried about not having enough energy to hit my set,'' Dawes said. ``I think I gave it more than 100 percent and that's the result of it. It won't happen again.''
After finishing the compulsories in third place, Strug was practically flawless Sunday. She opened with a near perfect vault that earned her a 9.95. Coach Bela Karolyi grabbed her in a bear hug afterward, before she ran off with television cameras chasing her.
She got the crowd rocking with her floor routine, grinning as she swayed and twisted to a Stray Cats medley. She flew across the mat on her tumbling passes, drawing appreciative cheers from the crowd, which gave her a standing ovation when she finished.
Karolyi was so excited by her routine he pushed his wife and fellow coach, Martha, as Strug finished.
``I was telling her, `Wake up, enjoy it!''' Karolyi said, still grinning nearly an hour after the meet finished.
Not everyone was as perfect as Strug. Phelps started the night in first, but a disastrous dismount from the beam dropped her into third. She sprawled across the mat before finally somersaulting backward.
She walked off the stage with her head down and into the arms of coach Mary Lee Tracy, who gave her some encouragement. Phelps showed no reaction when her score of 9.287 was announced, and sat on the sidelines for the rest of the rotation.
``After I did that, I knew I had to do everything I could to stay in the top seven,'' Phelps said. ``[Tracy] was telling me to put that behind me because I had one more event and I had to stay strong.''
She got a little boost from Borden, her teammate. Borden finished seventh in the 1992 trials, which should have been good enough for a spot on the Olympic team until veterans Betty Okino and Michelle Campi petitioned to be added.
Borden was on the bubble again Sunday, leading Theresa Kulikowski by just routine, rocking to the ragtime jazz music as her blonde hair blew. Even before she finished her final tumbling pass, Tracy was jumping up and down.
``Missing '92 made me want '96 even more,'' she said. ``It's a dream come true.''
Chow's Olympic dream nearly turned into a nightmare with her final event, the beam. She fell, knocking her face against the apparatus. By the time she got back up, a large red welt had formed above her right eye.
She continued the routine, performing several difficult aerial moves without problems. She grinned in relief when she finished, and a coach ran to her immediately to check her face.
``After I got back on the beam, I knew I had to focus on my routine and not what's hurting,'' she said.
Moceanu has a four-inch stress fracture in her right leg, and doctors said she could break it if she competed in the trials. Miller has tendinitis in her left wrist. Both must be healthy by July 19, two days before competition starts.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Bela Karolyi (right) coaches one of his star pupils,by CNBKerri Strug, on Sunday night during the U.S. Olympic gymnastics
trials in Boston. Strug made her second consecutive Olympic team.